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Military to test uniforms that change colour
By GRAEME SMITH
From Monday‘s Globe and Mail
Canadian military scientists plan to develop camouflage technology that would allow soldiers to change their appearances like chameleons.
Bidding on the $100,000 research project opened last week, two months after Canadian soldiers suffered international embarrassment for wearing dark green uniforms on Afghanistan‘s dusty battlefields.
The new outfits exist only in researchers‘ imaginations, said Paul Saville, a scientist at the Defence Research Establishment‘s Atlantic division.
But if the 12-month study produces promising results and the government pays for more research, Dr. Saville estimated that a soldier could be wearing a prototype chameleon suit in three to five years.
"The press has been full recently with stories about our troops being sent off to Afghanistan with forest camouflage into a desert environment," Dr. Saville said, "but if [soldiers] could push a switch and have their gear automatically adapt to their surroundings, they wouldn‘t have to worry."
The United States has been pursuing the same goal for at least two years and with vastly more resources. Last week, the U.S. military announced a five-year, $50-million (U.S.) grant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for development of high-tech battle garb, which includes improved camouflage.
The tacticians‘ dream of making soldiers nearly invisible has grown increasingly possible in recent years with improved liquid-crystal and electrochromic devices.
Originally developed for computer screens, both technologies use electricity to alter the molecules in a display.
A built-in sensor in a soldier‘s uniform, a tank‘s armour or a plane‘s fuselage could take visual cues from its environment and signal a shift in colour and texture to match it. A simpler version of the technology would allow troops to choose manually among many camouflage patterns, instantly switching from forest green to desert brown, for example.
Canadian forces personnel wear camouflage with just four colours: dark green, light green, brown and black. They customize their appearance with paint, blankets and makeshift cloth accessories.
In contrast to some other military projects, Dr. Saville said, Canada has been forced to work alone on camouflage technology because the United States won‘t share its research.
One challenge facing scientists is the necessity of a new uniform to present detailed images from all angles. Most liquid-crystal displays can be seen only from a relatively narrow viewing position.
It is also difficult to make such sophisticated technology ready for the battlefield, said Stuart Cogan, vice-president of EIC Laboratories Inc., a Massachusetts-based company researching electrochromic camouflage for the U.S. military.
"There are a number of groups in the U.S. already working on this," Dr. Cogan said. "But they‘re envisioning systems that are still well beyond our level now."
The electronic displays must survive a daunting list of conditions in the military, Dr. Cogan said, including shock, wear, wind, water, oil, heat and cold. They also need to be flexible and lightweight.
"People have been making variable-colour devices for decades, but it‘s only now that we‘re ready for this," Dr. Cogan said.
By GRAEME SMITH
From Monday‘s Globe and Mail
Canadian military scientists plan to develop camouflage technology that would allow soldiers to change their appearances like chameleons.
Bidding on the $100,000 research project opened last week, two months after Canadian soldiers suffered international embarrassment for wearing dark green uniforms on Afghanistan‘s dusty battlefields.
The new outfits exist only in researchers‘ imaginations, said Paul Saville, a scientist at the Defence Research Establishment‘s Atlantic division.
But if the 12-month study produces promising results and the government pays for more research, Dr. Saville estimated that a soldier could be wearing a prototype chameleon suit in three to five years.
"The press has been full recently with stories about our troops being sent off to Afghanistan with forest camouflage into a desert environment," Dr. Saville said, "but if [soldiers] could push a switch and have their gear automatically adapt to their surroundings, they wouldn‘t have to worry."
The United States has been pursuing the same goal for at least two years and with vastly more resources. Last week, the U.S. military announced a five-year, $50-million (U.S.) grant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for development of high-tech battle garb, which includes improved camouflage.
The tacticians‘ dream of making soldiers nearly invisible has grown increasingly possible in recent years with improved liquid-crystal and electrochromic devices.
Originally developed for computer screens, both technologies use electricity to alter the molecules in a display.
A built-in sensor in a soldier‘s uniform, a tank‘s armour or a plane‘s fuselage could take visual cues from its environment and signal a shift in colour and texture to match it. A simpler version of the technology would allow troops to choose manually among many camouflage patterns, instantly switching from forest green to desert brown, for example.
Canadian forces personnel wear camouflage with just four colours: dark green, light green, brown and black. They customize their appearance with paint, blankets and makeshift cloth accessories.
In contrast to some other military projects, Dr. Saville said, Canada has been forced to work alone on camouflage technology because the United States won‘t share its research.
One challenge facing scientists is the necessity of a new uniform to present detailed images from all angles. Most liquid-crystal displays can be seen only from a relatively narrow viewing position.
It is also difficult to make such sophisticated technology ready for the battlefield, said Stuart Cogan, vice-president of EIC Laboratories Inc., a Massachusetts-based company researching electrochromic camouflage for the U.S. military.
"There are a number of groups in the U.S. already working on this," Dr. Cogan said. "But they‘re envisioning systems that are still well beyond our level now."
The electronic displays must survive a daunting list of conditions in the military, Dr. Cogan said, including shock, wear, wind, water, oil, heat and cold. They also need to be flexible and lightweight.
"People have been making variable-colour devices for decades, but it‘s only now that we‘re ready for this," Dr. Cogan said.
